New neck for my Mexican Telecaster coming soon.

Hey Everyone,

Next week, I'm going to be buying a new neck for my 2014 Fender Mexican Telecaster as a replacement for the stock neck which has developed a twist in it, I've had a look on a website called The Stratosphere and it looks like they have quite a few new Fender Player Series 22 Fret Telecaster necks on sale for pretty reasonable prices, so after a quick browse I've elected to buy an all-maple 22 Fret Fender Player Series Telecaster neck W/Genuine Fender Tuners.

I'm also going to be ordering some new sets of Kurt Mangan 42-09-gauge strings, two new 250k A CTS Pots, three new 0.047uF Orange Drop Capacitors, and two new 3-way pickup switches from Realtone Music.

I'm basically going to be doing some restoration/maintenance work on my Mexican Telecaster, as it just so happens, I've got some spare black and white cloth-covered wire which I will use for doing all the wiring, so there's a fun restoration project I'll be working on in the next few weeks in the lead-up to this year's Christmas season, a mate of mine wants to do a recording session at his place, so hopefully I can get all the work on the guitar done in time.

Will post pics of the guitar once the work has been completed.

I’m not sure if your Mexican Tele use push-on knobs or grub-screw ones. I’ve seen both on Mexican Teles depending on the level of thd range they come from.

If push-on, count the splines on the current pot shaft. If it’s 18 spline, then the current knobs won’t fit a 24-spline CTS pot.

If grub-screw, make sure you order solid-shaft pots.

And make sure the pots are short-shaft ones as there’s only the thin control plate to mount to, not a thicker wooden body.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

I’m not sure if your Mexican Tele use push-on knobs or grub-screw ones. I’ve seen both on Mexican Teles depending on the level of thd range they come from.

If push-on, count the splines on the current pot shaft. If it’s 18 spline, then the current knobs won’t fit a 24-spline CTS pot.

If grub-screw, make sure you order solid-shaft pots.

And make sure the pots are short-shaft ones as there’s only the thin control plate to mount to, not a thicker wooden body.

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It actually has two grub-screw type knobs, but I going to be replacing the two original 250k A solid shaft pots with two new 250k A CTS splined shaft pots that have short shafts, I have already got two chrome grub screw knobs that fit splined shafts that I can use.


I'm also thinking of swapping-out the stock scratchplate for a new one, either a white one or a white pearloid, the stock one is getting a bit bent out of shape and I've tried straightening it up before with little success.

Is it a 5-screw or an 8-screw pickguard? The 5-screw ones do tend to twist over time, which is why Fender switched to 8-screw pickguards.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

Is it a 5-screw or an 8-screw pickguard? The 5-screw ones do tend to twist over time, which is why Fender switched to 8-screw pickguards.

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It's actually a white 8-screw 3-Ply scratchplate, the mounting-screw holes in it are getting a bit worn as well, I've decided to go with a new white pearloid 8-hole scratchplate, just to spruce it up a bit, Realtone Music have them in stock and they do fit Mexican Telecasters well without any mods.

Scratchplate screws are all stainless-steel ones, the original ones got a bit corroded.


I ended-up replacing the original bridgeplate because it had some rust and corrosion on it, and the saddles had pitting on them, I replaced it with a new chrome Gotoh bridgeplate with six modern style saddles on it, and i swear that if my ears aren't lying to me, the new Gotoh bridgeplate actually improved the overall tone of the guitar, I'm still keeping the Tonerider Hot Classics pickups because I found they work so well for me, the original pickups had a harsh treble that I didn't really like much, switching to the Toneriders definitely fixed that, I like the midrange in the tones I'm getting, the guitar seems a bit louder than usual, mainly due to the fact that the Toneriders are hotter-voiced, there's more lows and mids in the tone from what my ears tell me, I have no problems getting my Mexican Tele to cut through a live band mix.

I might see if I can order a can of conductive paint from Stewmac next week so I can use it to shield the body routs while I'm at it.

I don't know if you can get Rustins paints easily in Australia, but I use their G Shield screening paint for a lot of my cavities these days. It works very well and it's a lot cheaper than anything else, especially the small pots of stuff that a lot of guitar shops sell. It's £8 here for 125ml. https://www.northwestguitars.co.uk/g...g-paint-125ml/

Unless you are buying other stuff from StewMac, I'd have a look round to see if you can get anything more local to you.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

I don't know if you can get Rustins paints easily in Australia, but I use their G Shield screening paint for a lot of my cavities these days. It works very well and it's a lot cheaper than anything else, especially the small pots of stuff that a lot of guitar shops sell. It's £8 here for 125ml. https://www.northwestguitars.co.uk/g...g-paint-125ml/

Unless you are buying other stuff from StewMac, I'd have a look round to see if you can get anything more local to you.

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I guess I could check on my local Bunnings website to see if they have that kind of paint in stock, they might not but it's always worth checking first anyway, I'll do a google search for any Australian suppliers of that G shield paint, last time I tried shielding the routing of my Tele's body, I used some rolls of adhesive copper snail tape I bought from Bunnings, the adhesive they use on it appears to be conductive, using copper tape to do the shielding didn't really make much difference to the background hum-levels, and I did make sure there was continuity where there was supposed to be.

As a sidenote, I swapped-out the stock neck-screws for some other ones that were slightly larger in diameter than the stock ones, but they went-in easily enough, and if my ears aren't lying to me again, I can hear a slight improvement to the guitar's tone, I never knew something as simple as swapping-out the neck screws would have an effect on the guitar's tone, or I might just be imagining it, which doesn't surprise me, my current theory is that the slightly bigger neck screws must be attaching the neck tighter to the body so that the neck has no choice but to stay-put, they're improving the coupling of the neck to the body, sounds like a crazy theory doesn't it? it works for me anyway.

Shielding will help reduce hum with single coils, but it will rarely reduce it completely. Obviously make sure the foil is properly grounded and don't forget to ground the underside of your scratchplate. I always do the whole undersurface. I run copper tape up from the control cavity (there's normally no gap between the control plate and the scratchplate so you can't see it) and across the top of the guitar to the neck pickup cavity, with plenty of copper around the neck pickup to make contact with the scratchplate copper.

Then it's all down to how electrically noisy your playing environment is. Playing at home I rarely get any noise from my single-coil guitars unless I'm too near the amp.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

Shielding will help reduce hum with single coils, but it will rarely reduce it completely. Obviously make sure the foil is properly grounded and don't forget to ground the underside of your scratchplate. I always do the whole undersurface. I run copper tape up from the control cavity (there's normally no gap between the control plate and the scratchplate so you can't see it) and across the top of the guitar to the neck pickup cavity, with plenty of copper around the neck pickup to make contact with the scratchplate copper.

Then it's all down to how electrically noisy your playing environment is. Playing at home I rarely get any noise from my single-coil guitars unless I'm too near the amp.

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I've found that if I play my Mexican Tele through my Boss Katana amp I don't really hear much hum coming through, but you're right, single-coil pickups are notorious for picking-up any electrical noise, it's the "nature of the beast", having a good solid ground connection to the bridge helps a lot too.

Apparently the Tonerider Hot classics are wound/wired so that if you select both they act somewhat like a humbucker, I like them so much I don't really feel the need to swap them out for something else, I did see a set of EMG Tele pickups somewhere, possibly on the Stewmac website.


Only four more days, including today, till I finally get the new neck ordered online.


Buying one of these:

https://stratosphereparts.com/fender...c-shape-maple/

It's a 22 Fret neck and the stock neck is a 21 fret neck, the new neck has an overhang just after the 22nd fret, so as far as I can see he heel should fit the neck pocket, should be virtually a drop-in fit with zero mods, same radius and scale-length.

My understanding is that Fender's Player series of guitars are what used to be Fenders made in Mexico series of guitars, Fender would have used the same specs for the neck heels and neck pockets so a Player series neck should fit my Telecaster.

Since The Stratosphere usually part guitars out and sell the individual parts, I shouldn't have to go through the stressful process of cutting string slots in the nut to get the 1st-fret action right cause it has already been done at the factory when they put the neck on the body.

You can always get a lower action than the factory settings, especially the nut slots. You may not want to ho too low if you play slide guitar, bit if not, getting those nut slots really low does help the playability and keeps the first few frets more in tune as you don’t have to press down so hard to fret the strings, so the tension increase is minimal.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

You can always get a lower action than the factory settings, especially the nut slots. You may not want to ho too low if you play slide guitar, bit if not, getting those nut slots really low does help the playability and keeps the first few frets more in tune as you don’t have to press down so hard to fret the strings, so the tension increase is minimal.

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I usually go by Fender factory specs when doing setups on my Fender guitars, the first-fret action is 0.020 inch, and I normally set the 17th fret action for all the strings to 4/64ths, or 2/32s, or 1/16th inch, that's a low enough action for me, neck relief at the 8th fret is usually 0.010 to give a slight forward bow to the neck, and then I use a 9.5 inch radius gauge to set all the strings right.

Using imperial units of measurement is a habit I got into while working in my dad's workshop as an apprentice fitter and machinist.

I don't like using fractions of an inch (apart from 1/2" and 1/4") as I can't mentally picture the size. I find it much easier to mentally picture say 2mm or 3.3mm. I can of course measure fractions of an inch, but when using digital calipers, it's hard work converting back say 0.634"to an appropriate fraction value.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

I don't like using fractions of an inch (apart from 1/2" and 1/4") as I can't mentally picture the size. I find it much easier to mentally picture say 2mm or 3.3mm. I can of course measure fractions of an inch, but when using digital calipers, it's hard work converting back say 0.634"to an appropriate fraction value.

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I just remembered that I've got a spare Butterscotch Telecaster body I bought online from Allen Eden Guitars, so one of next year's guitar build projects is going to be a Butterscotch Telecaster with a maple neck, black scratchplate, Tonerider Hot Classics pickups, Gotoh chrome modern style bridge, and etc, guitar, kind of a modern take on an old 50's classic.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

I don't know if you can get Rustins paints easily in Australia, but I use their G Shield screening paint for a lot of my cavities these days. It works very well and it's a lot cheaper than anything else, especially the small pots of stuff that a lot of guitar shops sell. It's £8 here for 125ml. https://www.northwestguitars.co.uk/g...g-paint-125ml/

Unless you are buying other stuff from StewMac, I'd have a look round to see if you can get anything more local to you.

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I just checked the Stewmac website and got a bit of a shock, they are charging over $70.00 for a half-pint can of conductive shielding paint, so, it looks like I'm going to have to resort to buying a few rolls of adhesive copper snail-tape for shielding the wiring and pickups in my Mexican telecaster cause the snail tape works out cheaper and I won't have to wait a few weeks for it to arrive in the post.

You can make your own using white glue/ wood glue, vinegar and graphite. Of course the graphite isnt cheap or you can get some cheap carpenters pencils and grind up the lead. Google the recipe for exact amounts.

I personally use Aluminium foil as you get 10 metres for around the $5 mark and just use what ever glue you have. No need to worry about if the glue is conductive as you can just use a single piece and if you over lap doesnt cause a problem. Most pickguards use the same on the underside.

Have also bought some copper foil that was used for shielding from Amazon but Aluminium foil is way cheaper and easier to use.

Bummer Bunnings (in my area anyways) don't stock the snail tape anymore.

For the shielding to be effective it needs to all be connected to ground. It certainly needs to overlap. If you don’t use conductive glue then you are relying on some mechanical contact occurring between the foil pieces. But why rely on luck?

Shielding/slug tape with conductive adhesive is easy enough to get hold of in DIY stores and on Amazon/eBay. A 30m roll of 32mm wide tape should cost no more than AUD $20, probably less, and do many guitars. Double-check the width as you don’t want it too narrow. It needs to overlap and if too narrow you use a lot just getting an overlap on each application. You can cut it down to size if you need the occasional thin strip.

But if you want shielding paint (it is easier to apply in some instances than tape or foil), so just search for it. There’s nothing special about it for use on guitars, it’s pretty generic stuff. And you certainly don’t need a half pint or 250ml tin unless you are doing around 20+ guitars. My 125ml tin of Rustins G Shield has already done four guitars and is about 1/4 down on full. Too big a tin and you’ll end up wasting most of it.

But you do need to ground it. I sometimes use thin connecting wires held in place by copper tape, and sometimes by small screws and washers.

Earlier today one of the strings broke on my Mexican Telecaster guitar, the G-string, so seeing as I was going to have to take all the strings off it at some point anyway, I pulled all the strings off it and got out my new notched straight edge I had recently bought as well as the new fret-rocker that came with it, I used the notched straight edge to check the neck straightness and sure enough the neck does have a twist in it which is towards the low E-string side of the neck, I tweaked the truss rod to get the neck as straight as I could make it and it has a slight forward bow on the high E-string side, just out of curiosity I used the fret-rocker to check for high frets and there were quite a few of them, no wonder I had fret buzz issues in lots of places on the neck, I'm replacing the neck anyway due to it being twisted.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bakersdozen

Bummer Bunnings (in my area anyways) don't stock the snail tape anymore.

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That's a bit of a pity, I've used it for shielding before, it's practically the same as the adhesive copper shielding you can buy online from the Pitbull Guitars shop, I think from memory a roll of snail tape from Bunnings was something like Au$6.00 or so, it's about 30mm in width.


I just checked the Bunnings Darwin website and this is what they have in stock with regards to Copper Snail Tape:

https://www.bunnings.com.au/on-guard...-trap_p3010314


Turns out I was wrong about the price, but that's the adhesive copper tape I tried using for guitar shielding purposes, and apparently, they still have it in stock.

Lots of choice on Amazon. 4m of tape for $10.50 in Bunnings isn't great value.

https://www.amazon.com.au/s?crid=2BM...pe%2Caps%2C252

Just found out that a new Fender Player series Telecaster neck bought on The stratosphere is going to cost me over Au$500.00 all up, so I'll have to leave the restoration project for next year, in the meantime I'll order some new tuners, a string-tree, and some new strings from Realtone Music just to get the guitar in a playable state, the guitar has some chrome Hipshot Griplocks on it which aren't really doing much to keep the guitar in tune other than breaking strings, so I'm going to try some vintage-style Klusons this time round.